For the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions.

“Plagiaristic” in the sense of being borrowed from other sources and role models more than lived and felt for themselves. For example, a young person might confess to being “in love” without really knowing what that phrase means; they may only be hyperbolically applying it to puppy love.

In other words, these “intimate revelations” aren’t really all that intimate or revelatory; they’re a little boring.

All of this, of course, reflects back on the novel itself. Will the “intimate revelations” presented by Nick be trustworthy? Will they present some original view of the human condition, or merely a melodramatic “plagiarism” of other stories and novels?

The line about “young men” is interesting, since Nick turns thirty in the novel, and Fitzgerald turned twenty-nine the year Gatsby was published. Is there a subtle auto-critique in these lines—-a hint at the inadequacy of Fitzgerald’s earlier novels, published when he was twenty-four and twenty-six?